Sermons

Gathered Guests and Wedding Clothes

A sermon from Martin Luther read by Pastor David French
Matthew 22:1-14

This Gospel presents to us the parable of the wedding; therefore, we are compelled to understand it differently than it sounds and appears to the natural ear and eye. Hence, we will give attention to the spiritual meaning of the parable.

First, the King, who prepared the marriage feast, is our heavenly Father. The bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ. The bride is the Christian Church on earth. God first sent out his servants, the Prophets to invite guests to this wedding; they were to bid them by preaching only faith in Christ. But those invited did not come; they were the Jews, to whom the Prophets were sent, they would not hear nor receive those sent to them. At another time he sent other servants, the Apostles and martyrs, to bid us to come saying: Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come to the marriage feast.

These words beautifully introduce examples by which the doctrine of the Gospel may be confirmed, so that we may the better, by the aid of such examples meditate upon Christ, and be nourished by and feast upon him as upon fatlings and well-fed oxen. This is the reason he calls them fatlings. Take an example: Paul teaches in Rom. 3, 23f. how the bride is full of sin and must be sprinkled by the blood of Christ alone, or she will continue unclean, that is, she must only believe that the blood of Christ was shed for her sins, and there is no other salvation possible.

Follow now further in this Gospel: “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; and the rest laid hold on his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.” These are the three barriers that prevent us from coming to the marriage feast. The first, or the farm, signifies our honor; it is a great hindrance that we do not think of Christ and believe in him; we fear we must suffer shame and become dishonored, and we do not believe that God can protect us from shame and preserve us in honor.

second go to their spheres of business, that is, they fall with their hearts into their worldly affairs when they should cleave to the Word, they worry lest they perish and their stomachs fail them; they do not trust God to sustain them.

The third class are the worst, they are the high, wise and prudent, the exalted spirits, they not only despise but martyr and destroy the servants; in order to retain their own honor and praise, yea, in order to be something. They were the Pharisees and scribes, who put to death both Christ and his Apostles, as their fathers did the Prophets. These are much worse than the first and second, who, although they despised and rejected the invitation, yet then went away and neither condemned nor destroyed the servants.

It now follows: “Then saith he to his servants: The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy.” “Then he said to them: Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast.” Hence, they went out into the highways, namely, to us heathen, and gathered us together from the ends of the world into a congregation, in which are good and bad.

Then the King goes in to behold the guests. This will take place on the day of judgment, when the King will let himself be seen. Then he will find one, not only a single person, but a large company not clothed with a wedding garment, that is, with faith. These are pious people the ones who have heard and understood the Gospel, yet they cleaved to certain works. To them the King will say: “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness,” that is, he condemns their good works, that they no longer avail anything; for the hands signify their work, the feet, their walk in life, and he will then cast them into the outer darkness.

Now, this outer darkness is in contrast with the inner light, since faith alone must see within the heart. There our light, our reason must be covered and cease, and faith alone lighten us. For if a person will act according to reason, there is nothing but death, hell and sin before his eyes. Reason then considers itself a candidate for death; yet it finds no help in any creature, all is a desert and dark. Therefore, reason must despair and surrender itself as a captive to the light of faith alone. This same light then sees that it is God in heaven who cares for us, upon whom the heart can meditate, who rejects all aid of reason and depends upon no creature; then man will be sustained. Now this is the sense of the words, that those cast thus into outer darkness will be robbed of faith, and thus cast out.

Let us now briefly notice what is taught by this marriage feast. First, this marriage feast is a union of the divine nature with the human. And the great love Christ has for us is presented to us in this picture of the wedding feast. For there are many kinds of love, but none is so fervent as the love a new bride has to her bridegroom, and on the other hand, the bridegroom’s love to the bride. True bridal love has no regard for presents, or riches, or gold rings and the like; but cares only for the bridegroom. And if he even gave her all he had, she would regard none of his presents, but say: I will have only thee. And if on the other hand he has nothing at all, it makes no difference with her, she will in spite of all desire him. That is the true nature of the love of a bride.

This true bridal love God presented to us in Christ, in that he allowed him to become man for us and be united with our human nature that we might thus perceive and appreciate his good will toward us. Now, as the bride loves her betrothed, so also does Christ love us; and we on the other hand will love him, if we believe and are the true bride. And although he gave us even heaven, the wisdom of all the Prophets, the glory of all the saints and angels, yet we would not esteem them unless he gave us himself. The bride can be satisfied by nothing but the bridegroom himself; as she says in the Song of Solomon, 2, 16: “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” She cannot rest until she has her beloved himself.

So also is Christ on the other hand disposed toward us: he will have us only, and besides nothing. And if we gave him even all we could, it would be of no use to him; he would have no regard for it, even if we wore all the hoods of all the monks. He wants our whole heart; for the outward things, as the outward virtues, are only maid servants, he wants the wife herself.

And what do we present to him? An impure bride, a dirty, old, wrinkled outcast. But he is the eternal wisdom, the eternal truth, the eternal light, an exceptionally beautiful youth. What does he give us then? Himself, wholly and completely, the whole fountain of eternal wisdom. If then I am thus his and he mine, I have eternal life, righteousness and all that belongs to him. Therefore I am righteous, saved, and in a sense that neither death, sin, hell, nor Satan can harm me. If he gave me only a part of his wisdom, righteousness and life, I would say: That is of no help to me, I want all of thee, without thee nothing is real and true. When he gives me his servants, his Prophets, he gives me only a part and a morsel; the gifts are only concubines, among whom there is only one who is the true bride.

And, what do we bring to him? Nothing but all our heart-aches, misfortunes, sins, misery and lamentations. He is the eternal light, we the eternal darkness; he is life, we are death; he righteousness, we sin. This is a marriage that is very unequal. But what does the bridegroom do? He is so fastidious that he will not dwell with his bride until he first adorns her in the highest degree. How is that done? The Apostle Paul teaches in Tit. 3, 5-6: “He gave his tender body unto death for them and sprinkled them with his holy blood and cleansed them through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” That washing is baptism, with which he makes her clean. More than this, he has given to her his Word by which she is clothed and through her faith she becomes a bride.

But whoever has not on the wedding garment does not belong to the congregation, is filth, like the slime, pus, and ulcers in the body; it is indeed in the body, but it is no part of the healthy body. Counterfeits are among money, but they are not money; chaff is among the wheat, but it is not wheat; so there are those among Christians, but they are not Christians. This is sufficient on to- day’s Gospel. Let us pray God for grace, that none of us may come to such a precious and glorious marriage feast without a wedding garment. Amen